My first day
I spent my first shift as ‘YES’ advocate on pre-polling today, and am alarmed by the contentious and divisive attitude of the ‘No’ people.
My goal was to be non-judgemental, to offer information or just a pleasant ‘hello’ to early voters without being overbearing. After a pleasant couple of hours chatting to voters (and even rescuing the ‘No’ corflutes which were just leaned up against a couple of salvia bushes and constantly falling over causing obstruction which people were complaining about), my ‘No’ counterpart turned up moaning about the alleged millions of dollars allotted to the Yes campaign.
He then proceeded to stand right next to me at my YES table and steamroller me with his views. He was speechless when I said that other developed and mature countries had amended their constitutions to acknowledge their First Peoples without the sky falling down, and amazed when I said I would not ‘feel like a loser’ if the Yes vote lost.
Quite frankly, I will be sad if the NO vote prevails, and I will feel very sorry for those who did vote No; but I will not feel like a ‘loser’, and will continue to keep an open and explorative mind to the views of those who do not agree with me.
My second day
I turned up again today at 9.30, and had a pleasant couple of hours chatting and mostly just making sure that voters were familiar with the actual question they were asking to decide upon, making sure that they knew the process: that is ‘1 white box, 1 WRITTEN answer’.
I figure that people who were turning up early to vote had made their decision already, and it was not my goal to ‘turn’ anybody on the day. The YES flier has the actual wording of the referendum question, and a reproduction of the ballot paper with the single white box, for the voter’s written vote. We were conscious of assuring voters that they did not tick or cross, but had to write ‘yes’ or ‘no’ in the box, or invalidate their vote. Some people had questions, many were surprised by the simplicity of the process. Some (probably ‘no’ voters) tried to talk me down, but were then ok when I just assured them that they needed to write their answer, rather than tick or cross.
It’s odd that people come armed with this adversarial response. And sad.
Anyway, after a couple of hours, the same tall and imposing male person turned up and made a beeline for my little space with his box of pamphlets and his big t-shirt as if to stand right next to me again, as happened on the previous day. I asked him not to do this, but to stand according to chalk boundaries on the other side of the venue, so as to give us both space. After all, there were only 2 arguments being represented here, not several, and there was plenty of room for us both.
(In fairness, I have to say, that the chalk boundary lines supposed to be put in place by the AEC officials were incomplete, and had they been in place the previous day, this issue would not have arisen.)
But, at this point in time (about 11am) this clarification was not in place.
So uncomfortably enough, I had to stand my ground and ask him repeatedly, not to stand right next to me (extremely distracting when trying to have a conversation with a citizen and there is a person next to you over riding the conversation). Eventually, after trying to paint me as a ‘loser leftie trying to provoke an argument’, he backed off, put his box down, and had to go off to do another errand. By the time he returned, the AEC representative had finally come out, rechalked the correct border, which, if it had been in place from the outset, would not have precipitated this situation. I did inform my No counterpart of what had taken place in his absence, but he did not seem grateful or even interested in the clarification.
An ABC journalist asked me if I had a ‘feel’ about the way it was going, and it is impossible to give a definitive answer.
Of course I would love the YES campaign to succeed, but given the extreme conservatism of mostly rural Australia, I am not confident that it will. Negative and fear campaigns, as any switched on marketer knows, have much greater rates of success. It is so much easier to pluck ‘warnings’ out of mid air, and distract from the real question!
I was very warmed and grateful for those who exited the booth and let me know they had voted “Yes”, but if the “No” vote prevails, which is the norm for Aussie referendums, it will simply mean so much more hard work before things turn for the better.
As a whiter than white senior Australian who grew up in a small NW Victorian town with all the mish mash of attitudes towards First Nations Peoples, I still believe that the vast majority of current Australians are good-hearted people, who just need factual information and lived experience to make the morally right choices. I have seen this manifest itself many, many times over the years – seen positive turn to negative with correct information and experience obliterating defensive and negative attitudes.
I remain eternally hopeful and optimistic that this country can reconcile and achieve a rich future acknowledging and blossoming in, all the inputs of its peoples, First Peoples, and all thereafter.
More tomorrow – phew!!